


warring timelines

by emblems



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Family, Family Feels, Gen, Nightmares, chrobin family, i love them all so much, morgan the cursed son of the once fell dragon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 04:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4126140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emblems/pseuds/emblems
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“maybe i should get them, lucina!” morgan exclaims. “maybe i deserve these nightmares. of everyone, i’m the only one that was lucky enough to forget what happened in the other timeline! maybe i never saw those things at all! how is that fair? how is it fair that i get to escape?”</i>
</p><p>because being the amnesiac son of the once fell dragon can't be without a catch, and lucina refuses to let her brother suffer alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	warring timelines

**Author's Note:**

> i just wanted to write about my cursed son morgan, i love him so
> 
> this might become part of something else, but it stands well enough on its own and i've been telling myself i'd publish more of my stuff so here we are ~*~*

lucina is walking through the courtyard with severa when she decides she can no longer keep the information to herself.

“morgan is having nightmares,” she says.

severa stops. she turns to search lucina’s face, but lucina keeps her expression carefully blank.

severa, though, has always been able to read her too well. she also knows lucina wouldn't bother telling her this if it were an idle matter. “do your parents know?”

she shakes her head. “morgan asked me not to tell them.”

“has he told you what they’re about?” there's something in severa's voice—not quite hesitance, but trepidation. as though she already knows the answer.

she gives lucina the chance to prove her wrong.

lucina smiles sadly. “fire and death. a dragon’s roar.”

severa’s face darkens with recognition, and lucina knows she doesn’t have to say anything more.

* * *

she’d taken to checking in on him, unable to sleep soundly until she knew he was safe in his own mind. sometimes he sleeps soundly, but other nights—other nights she hears the groans before she enters the room.

but it’s his eyes that scare her—the terror in them when he first wakes up. she knows the feeling too well, and seeing it in her little brother makes her throat close up.

he calms down relatively quickly, but that doesn’t stop her from holding onto him, hand clasped firmly over his shoulder while he leans into her.

“you’re remembering,” lucina says.

morgan doesn’t answer at first. “they don’t feel like my memories, lucina.”

her arms tighten around him. the words have been on her tongue for weeks, now, ever since she first found him thrashing, sweating, screaming.

“you have to speak to mother,” she says.

he tenses. “no, i don’t want to worry her—”

“morgan,” she says, moving so she can look him in the eye. “you have to do something, they’ve only been getting worse. someone else is going to hear you, and she’ll find out either way. wouldn’t it be better to tell her yourself?”

he bites his lip and looks away. “things have been so good since she got back—”

“i know,” she says, holding him close again. “but she would want to know.”

“were you always right in the past, too?”

lucina almost laughs, and wonders what morgan would think of her if he knew that, then, she was almost never right.

* * *

lucina stands at her brother’s side while he tells robin of his nightmares.

she considers for a very long time. then, she looks at lucina. “you remember when we tricked validar?”

lucina blinks. “of course.”

“do you remember how?”

she pauses before answering: “you had a vision, didn’t you?”

robin nods, looking back to morgan. “we know now that, in another timeline, i killed your father.” lucina and morgan wince. “there’s no getting around that. but despite it never happening in the world that i know,” she’s careful to include lucina’s memories, “i still saw it. i imagine something similar is happening now. if these aren't memories resurfacing in your dreams, and you seem to think they're not," morgan nods, "then, well. perhaps, in another timeline, there was a morgan that saw the things you’re seeing in sleep.”

morgan nods. this he can understand, and with that assurance lucina sees some of the light return to his eyes.

and since it seems as though morgan won't, she asks: “is there anyway to stop them?”

morgan tenses. “lucina, it’s fine.”

she frowns. “no, it isn’t—”

“i can handle it—”

“but if you don’t have to—”

“maybe i should get them, lucina!” morgan exclaims. “maybe i deserve these nightmares. of everyone, i’m the only one that was lucky enough to forget, or maybe i never saw those things at all! how is that fair? how is it fair that i get to escape?”

lucina stares, open-mouthed.

the silence stretches for several long moments. morgan eventually looks away, flushed with anger and shame. lucina wonders how she went so long without realizing the depth of his frustration, and the thought fills her with shame of her own.

it's their mother that finally breaks the silence. “oh, morgan,” robin says. “you sound just like your father.” morgan looks up, eyes widening. robin smiles and takes both of his hands in hers. “i don’t want you to feel like you somehow have to make up for what you can’t control,” she says. “the best thing you can do is help keep those that live in this world safe; you’ve already done that and more.”

morgan nods. “i just. don’t want anyone worried about this when i’m not even worried.”

robin sighs. “regardless of what i or anyone else thinks, there’s no way i know to stop the visions. not that i know of.”

“how do you know?” morgan asks, brows knitting.

robin smiles thinly. “because i can’t stop mine.”

morgan and lucina both stare, wide-eyed.

finally, morgan asks: “what do you see?”

robin closes her eyes for a moment. the gravity of the question sinks in, and lucina feels her heart clench. a robin from another timeline was not robin at all.

a moment later, robin opens her eyes and responds: “nothing worth speaking aloud,” she says. she smiles. “the one thing that helps me,” she says, “is talking about what i see with someone i trust.”

“with father?” morgan asks.

robin nods. “you should do the same,” she says. “even if you think you don’t need to. promise me?”

morgan hesitates, but agrees.

“good. now, i think miriel had something she wanted to show you and laurent, so don’t go keeping her.”

morgan bounds from the room, some of his spirit returned. lucina lingers, and she watches her mother visibly droop in front of her eyes. she falls back against her chair and sighs, eyes shutting again.

lucina takes a few steps closer and takes the seat opposite, more than aware that this is where her father usually sits.

she waits.

finally, robin speaks: “thank you, lucina. for bringing him.” she sits up again, rubbing her hands over her face. it’s rare lucina sees her mother like this—so open. rather than being unsettling, it eases some of the tension from lucina's shoulders. here, she's not a princess; she's a sister, and she's a daughter.

“i just didn’t want him to suffer if he doesn’t have to,” she responds.

robin smiles thinly. “did you know about how—about what he said?”

to clarify, she asks: “thinking he deserves to get those dreams?” robin nods in answer. “i had an idea,” lucina responds. “he would ask questions about what it was like. he’d ask all of us, hoping if he spread it out amongst us no one would notice.”

“but they all keep you well-informed,” robin surmises.

“yes, and it was clear—it was clear he was trying to get an understanding of what it was like, as if he could live vicariously through those experiences. he thinks he’s somehow less worthy because of—of his not knowing.”

she smiles. “you both inherited your father’s bleeding heart.”

lucina smiles a little at that in return, and wonders how it is her mother seems to forget she sacrificed her life to save the entire world.

robin sighs before getting to her feet. “come—i got word your father is approaching ylisstol before you two arrived.”

lucina hastens to follow her mother from the room. “are you going to tell him about morgan?”

robin considers as they walk. finally: “do you think i should?”

lucina hesitates. “i think if he found out we hadn’t said anything, he’d be let down. it would be as though we didn’t trust him with knowing.”

there's a glint of amusement in robin's eyes as she responds: “yes, i agree. but you didn’t answer my question.”

they exit the castle. lucina squints in the sunlight. in the distance, she can hear the cheers signalling the exalt’s return. “yes, i think we should.”

robin nods. “then we will. together.” she takes lucina’s hand. she speaks again, voice softer this time: “morgan will be okay.”

the words fall out before lucina can stop them: “how can you be sure?”

she’s always been more candid around her mother. robin’s faith was always so free of pressure, somehow, and it helped lucina to speak freely.

they stop short of the castle’s entrance, and they both look to see chrom approaching. he spots them and begins to wave, his smile visible despite the distance. against protocol, he urges his horse forward.

robin squeezes lucina’s hand. “he has us.”

with so much conviction in her mother's voice, and with her father radiating light on his return, lucina finds it hard to disagree.

**Author's Note:**

> i do really want to write more about morgan and about robin, because i like the idea of the happy ending having a catch, and because the idea of morgan (and lucina for that matter) being of naga and grima's blood is too tempting to pass up. 
> 
> putting the chrobin fam through their paces yields such fun rewards for a writer, let me tell you.
> 
> [ if you enjoyed this, please consider [reblogging on tumblr](http://arosou.tumblr.com/post/123141904955/fic-warring-timelines) ]


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